Hold (Gentry Boys, #5)(40)

“What’s up, man?” I asked, giving him a hearty pat on the back.

“I f*cking love this guy,” Chase announced to the room, squeezing me and rocking back and forth.

“All right, all right.” I fended him off but grinned the whole while, grateful that my brother’s spontaneous goofiness was and always would be intact.

“You just missed seeing the monster,” I told Chase as we headed toward the back office.

“Creed was here?”

“Yeah, we had lunch. Would have given you a heads up if I had any idea you’d be on this side of town this afternoon.”

Chase sat down and propped his feet up on my desk while I gave him a quick rundown of all the Creedence-related news. Crazy sister-in-law on the run. Infant nephew tossed into the middle of it. It sounded like something out of a movie and I’d listened in disbelief as Creed tensely gave out details. Chase seemed to take it all in stride though. He listened carefully and then let out a low whistle.

“So I guess Creed isn’t the only one with news.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means I have news too.”

I waited. Chase laced his hands behind his head and gazed up at the ceiling contentedly.

“Are you going to elaborate?” I asked.

“Hold on, I’m rather enjoying this new cryptic side of my personality.”

“Well, let me know when you’re finished. I’m going to enter the week’s receipts in the meantime.”

Chase took his feet off the desk and leaned his elbows on his knees. “Steph is pregnant.”

I felt myself smiling. “Oh yeah?”

“Yeah.”

“Well shit bro, congratulations!”

He gave me a small smile but then it slowly faded from his face. “Thanks.”

“Don’t cut yourself on that enthusiasm.”

“It’s not my own enthusiasm I’m agonizing over.”

Something was wrong. I knew it was Chase’s dream to marry Stephanie and start a family. Since Chase was never one to hide his exuberance there had to be a reason he wasn’t jumping up and down. Given the fact that they were planning on moving into a Phoenix apartment in two weeks and hadn’t hinted that wedding bells were forthcoming I figured the pregnancy wasn’t a planned one. I thought back to the early morning four years ago when Saylor had shaken me out of a dead sleep to joyfully announce that we were going to be parents. I’d stared at the pregnancy test feeling a chaotic mixture of pride, terror and love. Sometimes even now I was still astonished over my good fortune, overwhelmed by the fact that out of all the better men on earth Saylor McCann had picked me.

After a moment Chase sighed. In halting words that seemed to hurt him as they emerged he confessed that he and Steph just weren’t connecting lately. She’d wanted to go to law school but now with a baby on the way he was afraid she thought she’d missed the chance. She didn’t even want to talk about it anymore. Stephanie, like all of us, also had some baggage. Hers was in the form of a philandering father and a history of seeing men at their worst. Maybe she feared what marriage and kids would do to her relationship with Chase. Whatever was going on, Chase seemed reluctant to force a confrontation. It hurt to hear him quietly admit that he was afraid of the truth. Afraid that maybe the girl he loved didn’t want the same things he wanted.

“Look,” I said. “You guys are overdue for a sincere conversation. So quit dancing around the topic, sit her down, and have it out. You love each other. You belong together and I wouldn’t bullshit you about that. Everything else can be worked out, Chase. Tell her how you feel about her and listen to what she says. It doesn’t need to be a big event. Just needs to be honest.”

“A perpetual series of grand gestures,” he muttered, rubbing the back of his neck.

“What?”

Chase looked at me. “I stopped by your house today and talked to Saylor.”

“What did she say?”

“That life can’t be measured as a series of grand gestures. You just need to let the moments unfold. And then cherish them when they do.”

“Good advice.”

“Brilliant.”

“So take it.”

“I plan to. Can I have that bag of chips on your desk?”

Chase only hung around for another twenty minutes or so. He wanted to get home and clean up the apartment before Stephanie got there. He still seemed a bit distracted when he left Scratch. As I watched him walk away I silently reassured my brother that everything would be all right. It would be. He and Stephanie would be fine. I just knew it.

Since foot traffic had been light all day I made the spontaneous decision to close up shop early. Aspen and Brick practically ran out the door the moment the words left my mouth.

Because it was a long holiday weekend and because I’d been neglecting all my girls lately I’d already decided to keep the place closed until Tuesday. As I hung the sign on the door I really started to get eager about having three days off. On the way home I stopped at a drugstore and bought some sparklers because I knew the girls would get a kick out of them. Saylor would raise an eyebrow but she’d indulge me as long as there was no real danger and I’d make sure I was standing right beside the girls the whole time.

Before I checked out I also picked up a small bouquet of roses and a cheap bottle of wine. I had some seduction ideas for sure, but mostly I just wanted to see Saylor’s smile when I walked through the door.